Like I said I was going to, I took the last week off from writing. I’m not going to lie: it was kind of hard. At the back of my mind I kept thinking that I really need to figure out what I’m doing for June on Sustainably North. I was also tempted to start writing another short story for fun. So I don’t know that it was a particularly relaxing week, but I stayed away from writing.
One of the best things to come out of this was that I finally read Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver. I was a huge fan of Uprooted, and was really looking forward to reading her next fairy tale. But I wanted Spinning Silver in trade paperback so it’s the same as my copy of Uprooted. So for my birthday last year, my brother gave me a gift card for Chapters, and I waited almost a year, saving that card until Spinning Silver was finally available in trade. It arrived late last week to the store and I picked it up on Friday. I then spent most of the weekend reading it.
I’m not going to lie: it felt so good to be reading fiction. I’ve read so much nonfiction over the last few years, many of which have been climate-related books. They’re heavy, and honestly rather depressing. So even though Spinning Silver is not exactly a happy read (the kingdom in question is besieged by the lord of winter, who is extending winter further and further into the other seasons so crops are dying) and is in its own way topical (dealing with crazy weather patterns), it was still fantastical and honestly just an all around good read. (Although I freely admit that I thought there were a few too many point of view characters popping up – I think Uprooted was better because the narrative is much tighter). Even though the nonfiction books I’ve been reading have been good in their own ways, it was wonderful to go back to fiction.
Once I was finished reading Spinning Silver, I then spent some time going through some old magazines. I got through about five or so that have been sitting around, waiting for me to read them (I was especially happy to get through a few Maclean’s magazines – I was almost a year behind on them!!!) Other than that, I found myself mostly hanging out with friends and family (happy belated Mother’s Day to all of the mothers out there!)
This next week looks like it’s going to be rather busy. Between work and other plans, I’m going to have to be really careful with my time. I’m hoping to have June planned out for Sustainably North by next Tuesday, and have started the edits on the Make Your Way story (in a perfect world, I’m hoping to have the first full editing sweep done; we’ll see how that goes as the week progresses!) So wish me luck, and lots of luck to you, whatever your plans are over the next week! 🙂
An Acquaintance with Letters 